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Rafah today
<a href="mailto:rafahtoday@yahoo.com"><rafahtoday@yahoo.com></a></i></b>
wrote: <br>
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 15:27:36 -0700 (PDT)<br>
From: Rafah today <br>
Subject: The "Days of Penitence": Gaza Sinks in a Sea of Blood<br><br>
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<font face="arial" size=3>Dear friend: <br><br>
I hope that you are doing fine.. <br><br>
Please see what is going on here and let your media, newspapers and everyone know about what is the Israeli Occupation Forces are doing in the North of <br><br>
Show them the human flesh, arms, legs, heads, brains scattered in the streets, show them what is the meaning of life in Gaza Strip.<br><br>
Please forward this to your newspapers and all media so they can share about what is going on here.. and please REMEMBER that your silence means encouraging the Israeli Army to kill more and more civilians in Gaza Strip.<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#FF0000">Does the time came to move from your silence?!!!<br><br>
</u></b></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> -----------------<br><br>
<br>
</font>The "Days of Penitence":<br>
Gaza Sinks in a Sea of Blood<br>
by Mohammed Omer: <a href="http://www.rafahtoday.org/"><font face="Courier, Courier" size=3 color="#003399">www.rafahtoday.org<br><br>
</a></font>It smells unbelievably bad here. To walk down any street—if you dare to—you skirt, or sometimes unavoidably walk through, pools of blood. There are shreds of human flesh—some of them unrecognizable as human remains—all over, on rooftops, plastered to broken windows, on the street. The stench of rotting blood mixes with the more acrid odor of flesh burnt to black char by the rockets fired by the Israeli Army's American-made Apache helicopters. <br><br>
The sky is full of black smoke, some from the rocket explosions, but even more, it sometimes seems, from the endless fires of tires and other debris that people keep stoking. The smoke confuses the heat-seeking unmanned drone surveillance planes, so setting fires in any relatively open area may draw fire and let a bomb explode somewhat harmlessly.<br><br>
All this smoke mixed with plaster and cement dust is a blessing and a curse. The stench of burning flesh and rotting blood masks to some extent the smell of raw sewage from broken sewer pipes and the tens of thousands of bodies unwashed for over a week now. Water to drink is a rare and precious commodity here—baths and showers have become mpossible luxuries. <br><br>
Your eyes inevitably tear up from all the smoke—but then, that protects you a tiny bit from some of the more harrowing sights—recognizable body parts—a piece of a leg, an obvious part of a torso, and fingers—more scattered, individual, recognizable fingers than anyone should ever have to see. Volunteer crews are gathering these human fragments and bringing them to Jabalya's two hospitals but the ambulances cannot possibly keep up with the flood of newly dead and injured.<br><br>
Funeral processions are everywhere, and "houses of mourning"—the tents bereaved families set up in which to receive their families and friends. In fact, though, every house here, those relatively intact and those partly or wholly destroyed by the IDF tanks and bulldozers, is a house of mourning.<br><br>
And nothing protects you from the sounds—the tears and laments of the mothers and fathers, husbands, wives and children of the dead, the screams of the injured, the wail of ambulance sirens, sniper fire, the thud of tank shells and the too-frequent explosions as another Apache shell lands. <br><br>
Time is distorted here—hours feel like days, days like weeks or months. This is Jabalya Refugee Camp in the Northern Gaza Strip, one of the most crowded places on earth where 106,000 men, women, and children, the overwhelming majority of them unarmed civilians, have been under an all-out attack for over a week now.<br><br>
Israel's official position is that this carnage<br><br>
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</b><font face="Verdana" size=3 color="#990000">RAFAH TODAY</font><font face="Verdana" size=3 color="#FFFFFF"> <br><br>
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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#CCCCCC">One year has now passed since my brother Hussam's death. He was 17. He was shot in his home. <br>
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</font><font face="Verdana" size=3 color="#003399"><a href="http://www.rafahtoday.org/news/todaymainmain.htm">Click here to view previous reports<br><br>
</a></i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>16 October 04<br><br>
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Here the Israeli gun machines pass: Devastation in Jabalya Refugee Camp <br><br>
</i></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>In less than ten hours, a massive IDF incursion on the night of Thursday the 14th into dawn on Friday killed three civilians, left many more injured, destroyed completely or damaged into uselessness about 48 houses, and did serious damage to infrastructure. With that many houses uninhabitable, now hundreds of men, women, and children have become homeless. Rafah governorate has said about 300 citizens joined the thousands already homeless here in ten hours last night.<br><br>
From the medical staff at Abu Youif Al Najjar Hospital in Rafah,I learned that Ismail Sawalha, a man of 70, Ali Sha'at, 25, and Ahmed Al Tahrawi, 21, were killed in the incursion. Hospital personnel said that the bodies of the two young men arrived at the hospital in burned fragments and initially, identification was difficult. It was only neighborhood eyewitnesses who later told the hospital that<br>
the bodies of the two men were burned in the crater made by the Apache-fired missile.<br><br>
Ahmed Al Sawalha, the 36-year-old son of Ismail, saw his 70-year-old father killed. "My father was sitting at the stair of our house when he was killed," he said. "There were no gunmen or fighters in the street. There was no need to shoot at him."<br><br>
Also, I was told by eyewitnesses that Jihad Barhoom, 16 years old , was shot while standing outside his home a few hours before the full incursion started At least four people were badly injured, including an elderly lady, Khadra Shoman.<br><br>
As usual, the Israeli army rolled into the three neighborhoods with tens of tanks and bulldozers, covered by two Apache helicopters and other surveillance planes. <br><br>
Some of the early wire service stories have said 30 houses were reduced to rubble. I am getting the estimate of 48 houses from talking to eyewitnesses in the neighborhoods that suffered this incursion, namely, Yebna Camp, Al Shao'ut, and the Al Barahmah district. I tend to trust that number because only someone who actually lives in the area can walk around and know for sure whether a given<br>
stretch of rubble had the day before been one, two, three, or more homes. <br><br>
As usual, water, electric, and sewer lines suffered serious damage. Some of these had been repaired since May's "Operation Rainbow," and are now wrecked again. Also, as usual, streets have been torn up and fruit trees razed. Everywhere you walk in Rafah, you can see the damage caused by incursion after incursion. It is almost impossible to find any building that does not have its collection of<br>
bullet and shell damage.<br><br>
<br>
From Gaza City:<br><br>
</b>According to Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, Sharon is "considering withdrawing"to the 'outskirts' over the weekend.<br><br>
Khalil Samara, the mayor of Jabalya, said this about the announcement: "Sharon is committing his largest, bloodiest massacres under the guise of 'withdrawing' from the Palestinian camps."<br><br>
This IDF operation, called "Days of Penitence" is the Israeli "response" to a Qassam rocket launched by Palestinian militants at the Israeli town of Sderot close to the Gaza/Israeli border. That attack late in September killed 2 Israeli children. "Response" seems the wrong word for what is now happening in all of Gaza. It is collective punishment, and illegal under international law. <br><br>
12 October 04<br><br>
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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>The Israeli Occupation soldiers gave Oraiba district in Rafah 30 minutes to to leave their houses before the bulldozers started demolishing them. “Louder speakers are calling us to leave or they will shoot us” said one of the eyewitnesses over phone in Rafah while running trying to get his important documents.<br><br>
Eight houses were completely and partially demolished in that incursion, in addition to the damages of the greenhouses, infrastructure, and everything related to humanity. Oraiba district is well known as an agriculture area. It is one of the best sources for markets to get into Gaza Strip.<br><br>
Abu Youif Al Najar hospital reported about many injured people arriving the hospital everyday due to the daily shelling from tanks and Israel posts. <br><br>
The Israeli military Forces have been blocking Gaza Strip, dividing it into three parts for the second week in a row. This has made life very dififcult for us with lack of food, medicine and even gas for cars to move inside Rafah. <br><br>
In Khanyouies also, the IOF Forces shelled Nasser hospital with three tank shells, leaving at one of the nurses injured, also a 10 year old schoolgirl was inured while sitting at her school desk in one of the UNRWA schools in the Camp. <br><br>
In Jabalya, there are now hundreds of injured and dead..<br><br>
6 October 04<br><br>
</b></font></tt><img src="cid:6.1.2.0.2.20041020082115.01f88f40@66.103.156.66.5" width=331 height=400 alt="a6402e.jpg"></b><br>
Amnah Al Najjar 60 years old is brought in private car <br>
to the hospital after sustaining a head injury by an Israeli sniper. She was in her house. <br><br>
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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Israeli soldiers riddled her body with twenty bullets and another five ripped through her head on her way to school. Thirteen year old schoolgirl Eman Al Hums is from Rafah Refugee Camp. She was <br>
shot on her way to school with other two friends. They, however, were luckier than she was when they ran away as soon as they heard the shelling.<br><br>
Dr. Ali Mussa at Abu Youif Al Najjar hospital said that the Israeli soldiers in Rafah shot the child and prevented the medical team from reaching her body nor bringing her into the hospital.<br><br>
The Israeli military Forces later on today said that they had not found any kind of explosives in her school bag. After killing the schoolgirl, one of the soldiers had said he had believed the bag contained explosives. <br><br>
From Iman’s blood in Rafah on to Somia Felfel in Jabalya. A tragedy like no other when Israeli tanks shelled her house leaving all 8 of her children injured.<br><br>
The Jabalya Refugee Camp is till under very heavy shelling and hundreds of victims are arriving at the hospital every hour. The people are appealing to the Red Cross but they have been unable to respond. A case in point: Umm Jamal Id, a member of one of the families who are currently surrounded had been asking for food and water for her children and the Red Cross had not been able to react at all.<br><br>
In an interview over phone with the spokesman of Red Cross Simon Schorno, he said:’I’m on my way to Gaza Strip, but the damaged roads in Gaza Strip is the reason for the absence of Red Cross over the past few days."<br><br>
There is heavy resistance in the Jabalya Camp and explosives can be heard from time to time, inside the camp.<br><br>
Sixty year old Amnah Al Najjar arrived at the hospital a few hours ago after sustaining serious head injuries. She was transferred to Al Shifa hospital due to the lack of beds and medical instruments at Kamal Adwan hospital.<br><br>
“Al Najjar was shot in her head while she was in her house,“ the driver who brought her body to the hospital said.<br><br>
Jabalya camp is known as the most heavily populated camp in all of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It is also the first place where the first Intifada had erupted and where a militant Israeli Jeep drove a group of Palestinians workers inside the camp.<br><br>
Israeli soldiers today prevented ambulances and fire engines from reaching the fire that had erupted in three tons of gas in the North of Gaza Strip. Black smoke can been seen everywhere in the North of Gaza Strip..<br><br>
Today it was different from yesterday and the past few days because now there are so many international journalists who have come into the area to cover the ongoing carnage, but still the Israeli Forces are not allowing them to into the camp, and still there are so many of them stuck at the Erez checkpoint awaiting permission to get into the Gaza Strip.<br><br>
The refugee families inside the camp are appealing to all free people throughout the world to stop the blood shedding by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the camp.<br><br>
</font></tt><img src="http://www.rafahtoday.org/newsphotos/04/october/6/SohaFelefel222.jpg" width=267 height=400 alt="[]"><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>All family members were injured: Soha Felfel 6 year old, on her bed, <br>
after being injured by a tank shell with all her family in the Jabalya Camp<br><br>
</font></tt><img src="http://www.rafahtoday.org/newsphotos/04/october/6/Jabalya_13October2004.jpg" width=400 height=267 alt="[]"><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Even kindergartens: Palestinian children are collecting what remains from the kindergarten that was demolished by the Israeli bulldozers and apaches shelling<br><br>
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2 October 04<br><br>
Writing from the North of Jabalya:<br><br>
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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#990000">Jabalia is drowning in blood and is now under a new Israeli incursion that's targeting civilian buildings. </b></font>There is a smell of death on every street you go. Life is getting wors in the North of Gaza Strip, soldiers are targeting everything related to human beings.<br><br>
Jabalya Camp in the north of Gaza Strip is surrounded here and hundreds of people were killed and injured.All you can see in the hospital is shreds of human flesh spread all over the streets..<br><br>
The Jabalia Camp continues to this moment to be under attack.. ambulance drivers, medical workers and journalists were the first people to be targeted by the Israeli Army. <br><br>
In RAFAH ALSO, AND ACCORDING TO EYEWITNISSES, the IDF invaded the camp, killing an old man and injuring two others. The situation is deteriorating throughout.. <br><br>
Most of the dead are children. Kamal Adwan, hospital director said: "The soldiers are delibderately targeting the upper parts of the children by rockets and tanks shell."<br><br>
People here in the North of the Jabalya Camp are in bad need of water and food, and as usual no international organizations are visiting the area to provide the families any help.<br><br>
Soon, more later from the North of Gaza Strip.<br><br>
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